“Trust in the Lord and do good.” (Psalm 37:3). The letter to Titus calls
us to live out what that verse of the Psalm is saying. We are to do good.
The inspired writer brings this home to us while writing in the spirit and
tradition of S. Paul. The letter is written almost thirty to forty years
after Paul’s death, but its message is thoroughly Pauline and helps us to
understand the early church as it progresses and has to be formed and
organized to face the new crises and issues of the day maybe ten years
before the turn of the first century.

Doing good is the message not for one generation like the elderly but also
specifically for the upcoming generation of which Titus seems to be a part
of as he becomes the “presbyter-episcopus” the elder and overseer of the
church in Crete. The adice he is given is to be good, steadfast in teaching
true doctrine and as the Psalm says to trust in the Lord thus being good.
The simplicity of this message helps us to understand that our own call to
holiness and members of the Church is not an impossible ideal nor task, but
essentially a living out of what we have received from the Gospels and from
Paul–sound teaching and avoidance of false teaching bound up with
ritualistic practices.

We are called to be temperate, self-controlled, sound in the faith and
steadfast in doing good. To accomplish this absolute trust in the Lord is
needed.

As the epistle continues and as our particular passage ends we have an
epiphany or manifestation of God’s grace among us in the person of Jesus
and his Gospel. For the first time it is clear in this and other epistles
that Jesus is both our Savior and our God. The mysteries of Christ are
manifested (a Christmas like epiphany) and we are saved by Our Lord Jesus
Christ (the Easter mysteries). Incarnation and Redemption are not separated
in Paul’s tradition and his life.

The Psalm thus brings out the same message of goodness by trusting in the
Lord. One great Psalm interpreter has this to say about the Psalm, “It is
a question of the vindication of religion in man’s everyday life, and that
vindication takes the form of giving pastoral counsel of a didactic
nature.” (Arthur Weiser, The Psalms, O.T. library, p.315.). This is what
the Pastoral Epistles are teaching. Amen.

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